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Harry William Thompson (6 February 1960 – 7 November 2005) was an English radio and television producer,
comedy writer
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term origin ...
, novelist and biographer. He was the creator of the
dark humour
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...
television series ''
Monkey Dust
''Monkey Dust'' is a British adult animated satirical sketch comedy series created by Harry Thompson and Shaun Pye. The series is characterized by its dark humour, frequent shifts in animation styles, and handling of taboo topics such as be ...
'', screened between 2003 and 2005.
Born in London, Thompson was educated at
Highgate School and
Brasenose College, Oxford, then joined the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
as a trainee in 1981. He soon focused his attention on comedy, working as a researcher for ''
Not the Nine O'Clock News
''Not the Nine O'Clock News'' is a British television sketch comedy show which was broadcast on BBC2 from 1979 to 1982. Originally shown as a comedy alternative to the '' Nine O'Clock News'' on BBC1, it features satirical sketches on then-cur ...
'' and
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...
's ''
The Mary Whitehouse Experience
The ''Mary Whitehouse Experience'' was a British topical sketch comedy show produced by the BBC in association with Spitting Image Productions. It starred two comedy double acts, one being David Baddiel and Rob Newman, the other Steve Punt an ...
''. Rising to the level of producer, he produced the BBC radio shows ''
The News Quiz
''The News Quiz'' is a British topical panel game broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
History
''The News Quiz'' was first broadcast in 1977 with Barry Norman as chairman. Subsequently, it was chaired by Barry Took from 1979 to 1981, Simon Hoggart f ...
'' and ''
Lenin of the Rovers''.
Hat Trick Productions
Hat Trick Productions is an independent British production company that produces television and radio programmes, mainly specialising in comedy, based in London.
History
Hat Trick Productions was founded in 1986 by Rory McGrath, Jimmy Mulville ...
subsequently employed Thompson to produce a television adaptation of ''The News Quiz'', entitled ''
Have I Got News For You'', a critical and commercial success which Thompson produced for five years before moving onto other projects.
A biographer and novelist, Thompson wrote six books: an investigation into the story of ''
The Man in the Iron Mask''; a biography of
Hergé
Georges Prosper Remi (; 22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), known by the pen name Hergé (; ), from the French pronunciation of his reversed initials ''RG'', was a Belgian cartoonist. He is best known for creating ''The Adventures of Tintin'', ...
with a commentary on his ''
Adventures of Tintin
''The Adventures of Tintin'' (french: Les Aventures de Tintin ) is a series of 24 bande dessinée#Formats, ''bande dessinée'' albums created by Belgians, Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one ...
'' series; biographies of
Peter Cook
Peter Edward Cook (17 November 1937 – 9 January 1995) was an English actor, comedian, satirist, playwright and screenwriter. He was the leading figure of the British satire boom of the 1960s, and he was associated with the anti-establishme ...
and
Richard Ingrams
Richard Reid Ingrams (born 19 August 1937 in Chelsea, London, Chelsea, London) is an English journalist, a co-founder and second editor of the British satire, satirical magazine ''Private Eye (magazine), Private Eye'', and founding editor of ' ...
; a novel, ''
This Thing of Darkness
This Thing of Darkness (published in the United States as ''To the Edge of the World'') was the debut novel of Harry Thompson, published in 2005 only months before his death in November of that year at the age of 45. Set in the period from 1828 t ...
''; and the semi-autobiographical ''
Penguins Stopped Play''.
Biography
Early life and career: 1960–1989
Harry William Thompson was born on 6 February 1960 in London.
[ Brown 2005.][ ''The Telegraph'' 2005.] His father was a marketing manager who worked for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', while his mother was a teacher who campaigned for higher standards in education.
He attended the private, fee-paying school
Highgate School before going on to study History at
Brasenose College, Oxford. There he became editor of the university newspaper, ''
Cherwell'', working alongside arts editor
Roly Keating, the future controller of
BBC2
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
.
Leaving university, he joined the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
as a trainee in 1981.